12 January 2011

Royal twins born in Denmark

In the morning of Saturday 8 January 2011 I followed the media updates from Denmark closely, and when the official announcement came from the Royal Court, I posted the news at among others the newsgroup alt.talk.royalty. Unfortunately I got no time to update my blog until now, which underlines my point about how difficult I sometime find it to write about news items.

Anyway, as I posted the news of the pregnancy in August, it would feel strange not to comment on the birth as well, even if it is a bit late. As I wrote in my two postings at alt.talk.royalty, Crown Princess Mary, née Donaldson, wife of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, gave birth to twins at Rigshospitalet in Denmark on Saturday 8 January 2011.

The first child, a boy, was born at 10.30, weighed 2674 grams and was 47 cm long. The second child, a girl, was born at 10.54, weighed 2554 grams and was 46 cm long.

In accordance with tradition, the names of the prince and princess will only be made public at the time of the christening.

The Crown Prince couple has two children from before - Prince Christian, born 15 October 2005, and Princess Isabella, born 21 April 2007. The royal twins have entered the line of succession to the Danish throne as no. 4 and 5 respectively.

Naturally the speculations over what names the Crown Prince couple will choose for their twins have started and will go on until the christening later in 2011!

It is difficult to say what we can expect. Personally I would love if the couple found traditional Danish royal names - go to An Online Gotha for examples - or at least names with Danish/Norse roots. It would be nice to see a Prince Flemming and a Princess Caroline-Mathilde, but as the newborn prince and princess are only 4th and 5th in the line of succession, their parents might feel less bound to follow the name traditions within the Danish royal house. I think it is safe to assume, however, that the boy will have Frederik as one of his given names, but not as his call name, while the name Margrethe might be reserved for a possible firstborn daughter of Prince Christian. All the Danish descendants of King Frederik IX have got four given names, so I think we can be quite certain that the Crown Prince couple will follow the same path. I will focus on the name in daily use, though.

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary might be influenced by the most popular names in Denmark right now (even if they are not necessarily conscious about it). The Danish statistics agency, Danmarks Statistik, has made a survey of the most popular names as of 1 January 2010 (I am sure the list will be updated soon), and it contains some interesting names. Wouldn't it be fitting for a twin to be named Thomas? Then Charlotte would be an good choice for the princess. The signature Zwartendyk has made some interesting - and some more entertaining - suggestions at the newsgroup alt.talk.royalty. I doubt we will see a Prince Søren of Denmark, though. But of course Prince Erik and Princess Hedvig would work. Both names have Danish royal traditions, even.

Most people were surprised when the Crown Prince couple decided on Isabella for their second-born, and they might surprise us again with names that no-one has been thinking of. Crown Prince Fredrik joked at the press meeting after the twins' birth that the boy could get the name Elvis, as the twins share their birthday with the late rockstar Elvis Presley. I guess that is one of the few names which we can safely rule out...

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This blog is written by Dag T. Hoelseth, a Norwegian historian specialising in royal history.
I have a Cand.philol. degree in history from the University of Oslo and graduated in 1997 with the dissertation Det nasjonale kongedømme. Det norske monarkiet 1905-1910, which dealt with the royal election in Norway 1905 and how the new dynasty "became Norwegian".
I am the author of Historisk utredning om Kongehuset, dets apanasjer og disponible statseiendommer, which was published on behalf of the Palace Committee in 2001. The report focused among others on the history of the Norwegian civil list from 1905 to the 1970s as well as the properties the king of Norway has to his disposal.
I have made contributions to several antologies and also written articles for various publications. More often I have operated "behind the scene", consulting newspapers etc. with background information.
Among my other interests are genealogy, Norwegian-American emigration history, US presidential history, traveling, football and ice hockey.